Office of Academic Affairs Special Studies Policy for Visiting Scholars & Postdoctoral Trainees

The School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill encourages scholars and trainees to become involved with the School. The following are some guidelines for planning and facilitating such visits or stays at our School.

Visiting Scholars

Visiting scholars are faculty and clinicians from other schools and agencies across the country and the world who wish to come to the School for a period of time ranging from several days to an entire semester or academic year. Visiting scholars include scholars who are fellows funded by a fellowship (e.g., Fullbright, WHO). The goals of visiting scholars generally relate to one of the three missions of the School: teaching, research, or service. Many visiting scholars come to the School to collaborate with an individual faculty member who plays a critical role in helping structure and schedule the individual's activities while on campus. However, some visiting scholars have a broader mission within the School, and may relate closely to Associate Deans, Directors, Chairs, and groups of faculty.

Categories of Visiting Scholars

There are at least two categories of visiting scholars: short-term visiting scholars and extended-stay visiting scholars. The needs and some of the processing for each group may differ.

Short-term Visiting Scholars

Short-term visiting scholars are faculty or clinicians who wish to come to the SON for a brief period of time (typically a few days to a week or two). The goals of these scholars are diverse. They may come to learn about specific educational programs or the overall educational endeavors of the School, to learn about the Schools' research resources and activities, or to learn more about our practice endeavors as faculty. Some may come to collaborate with specific faculty on an educational, research, or clinical effort. These visitors typically are linked to the appropriate administrator and to relevant staff and faculty.

Extended-stay Visiting Scholars

Extended-stay visiting scholars are those who are on sabbatical leave and who request to come to the School over the course of a semester or an academic year.

Some extended-stay visiting scholars may come to the School to focus on some aspect of curriculum and or teaching. These scholars are linked to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and appropriate Directors.

Most visiting scholars come to the School to immerse themselves in their own research and to collaborate with faculty research projects. Many of these scholars are interested in improving their research skills in some area. Research scholars are linked to the Associate Dean for Research.

Extended-stay visiting scholars also may be focused on clinical practice or clinical scholarship. Clinical scholars are linked to the Associate Dean for Practice.

All scholars also are linked to at least one faculty host who facilitates the individuals' orientation and activities within the School and University and who serves as a colleague and as a mentor as needed. These visiting scholars are not supported financially by the School; they must have their own funding. Typically this involves sabbatical or leave support from their institutions. In addition, a fee for their visit may be required.

Office of Academic Affairs facilitates the application, processing, and experience of the visiting scholars. For further information regarding the special studies policy, and related guidelines, please contact the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA).

Policy Statement: Fees for Visiting Scholars

1. Any visiting scholar who is invited to the School for two weeks or more shall be assessed a fee based upon the School’s fee of $2,000 per semester. The School provides the resources requested by the scholar.
• The SON is committed to sharing the knowledge and expertise of its faculty with visiting scholars; however, the School is unable to provide space, computers, telephones, or electronic access for visits by scholars that exceed two weeks without a fee assessment.
• Fees will be pro-rated as follows:

2 weeks = $250	2 months = $1,000	6 months = $4,000
3 weeks = $375	3 months = $2,000	1 year = $6,000
1 month = $500

2. Invitations to scholars to visit the School shall be based upon first come, first served offers.
• Allocation for SON space and other resources for visiting scholars are sufficient to accommodate only two full-time scholars at a time.
• If a visiting scholar indicates a lack of funding for a visit of 2 weeks or more and a faculty member has sufficient funding, time, and space to accommodate the scholar, that faculty member may offer an invitation. In this case, the School does not provide space, computer, electronic access or other resources to the scholar. Any resources (space, supplies electronic access, etc.) the scholar may receive are provided by the host faculty member. In some instances, it may be appropriate to encourage the visiting scholar to utilize his/her lodging site as work space in the absence of available SON space.